The Document Foundation, the nonprofit steward of LibreOffice, stripped roughly 30 contributors affiliated with Collabora of foundation membership last week. The purge removed both employees and contractors, effectively silencing their vote in board elections and governance decisions. Collabora responded by announcing a separate, streamlined “Collabora Office” product line and scaling back its upstream contributions to LibreOffice.

TDF’s statutes require members to prove three months of verifiable work and pledge six more months, with renewal decided annually by the membership committee. Members may still code, but only members can stand for or vote on the board that controls trademark licensing and fund allocation. The foundation cited nonprofit‑law concerns over past board decisions that permitted LibreOffice trademark use on Apple and Microsoft stores.

With its core corporate contributor sidelined, LibreOffice now faces a narrower upstream pipeline and potential delays in features like online editing. The dispute also exposes how nonprofit governance can clash with commercial interests when board members hold equity in ecosystem firms. The Document Foundation’s membership revocation of Collabora staff marks a rare, forceful assertion of legal compliance over collaborative momentum.